We are pleased to announce that after months of preparation, BloomBoard has taken home the EdTech crown from last night's Launch: Silicon Valley 2014 World Cup Tech Challenge, held at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, CA. BloomBoard was among 30 startups from 15 countries competing in five Tech Groups - Digital Media, EdTech, HeathTech, Next Generation Technology, Enterprise Software - for this year’s tournament.

Launch: Silicon Valley is a competition held annually by SVForum, a San Jose nonprofit organization, to connect the best tech startups from around the globe with VCs, angels, corporate venture and corporate executives. Each startup gets four minutes to pitch their companies, and then demonstrate their products to a panel of judges comprised of top Silicon Valley and International investors. After a brief Q&A session with panelists, winners are selected in each Group based on a roundup of points given by judges, online votes, and audience votes.

CEO and Co-founder Jason Lange's pitch to a panel of judges

As part of BloomBoard's pitch, CEO Jason Lange turned the audience and judges to the harsh reality of education as a compliance industry: "Districts have to do everything, check every box they have, to make sure that they don't get sued, to make sure they get paid, before they can actually take on the really hard challenge of actually improving student outcomes." BloomBoard's win was due to our solid understanding of the United States education system, demonstrated success with existing schools and districts, and a strong company vision to benefit both teachers and students. Our team strives to provide educators with tools they can use to grow, based on what kids need and what teachers need.

This has been a tremendous honor for us, considering all the great competition we faced. Congratulations to the following companies on your wonderful work in improving education across the globe: